Japanese bloggers review Comic-Con cosplayers

Just last weekend was the long-awaited event of the year for fans everywhere: San Diego’s Comic-Con International 2013. From July 18 to July 21, participants young and old congregated at the San Diego Convention Center for four days of panels, official announcements, and other fan-focused, concentrated excitement.

Even Japanese bloggers had their eye on the west coast of America over the weekend. Unsurprisingly, the costumes and cosplay aspect of Comic-Con got lots of comments on Japanese sites, too.

▼ “Is this from the Powerpuff Girls?”
“Wait a minute…”
“Uh oh, Blossom…”

▼ “So gross, she might show up in my nightmares.”
“Can’t help but mention the nice bod.”
“Makes me want to cry. Too scary…”
“Man, this one made a shiver go down my spine… Gonna haunt my dreams!”
“The make up is impressive, but the boobs are the main draw.”

▼ “Nice looking Elizabeth.”
“I guess that Bioshock is popular in their country, too, huh?”

▼ “Looks kinda gay, but the guy in the middle really did me in! LOL”

▼ “She’s so pretty she makes popular Japanese cosplayers look like crap by comparison!”

▼ “Scrolled down to this one and started laughing at the full-face grin.”

▼ “The fact that none of you are commenting on either of these Elizabeth’s gigantic breasts must mean that you all need glasses.”

▼ “The grossness of these costumes is overwhelming.”

▼ “Sliced Bread Man!”
“Is that Sliced Bread Man? What a hottie!”

▼ “This one is the real deal.”
“I’m more interested in the tall guy in the background dressed like GoLion. That’s not cosplay, huh? I think they called GoLion “Voltron” overseas?”

▼ “Wow…”
“Is that supposed to be Chiba’s mascot character Funasshi? Is that allowed?”
“And that’s not Funasshi, guys. It’s the Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.”

▼ “He has too much beard and too many muscles. But the Jake tattoo is cute.”
“I totally LOLed at the macho Fin.”

Despite the varied reception of some of the costumes, there was a common theme to a lot of the comments. Most of the bloggers were impressed with the quality of the costumes they saw on the American cosplayers:

“There’s a lot of effort put into making the details of the costumes overseas. The materials even look high quality. I honestly wish that Japanese cosplayers would put a bit more effort into their costumes.”

“I’m not saying that I don’t mind how they look just because they’re foreign or anything, but you can definitely tell they’re having a fun time, unlike with Japanese cosplayers.”

“At Japanese events you can’t have long props (air guns and plastic guns included) and you can’t put on make up before arriving on site. But besides that, the stuff they come up with overseas is really ingenious! Some really impressive people come to these events, huh?”

But above all, this comment managed to sum up the opinion of almost everyone on either side of the Pacific Ocean: